


The Same Again (and nothing like it)

by AnOddSock



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Altered States, Attacked in their own home, Bodily Fluids, Body Horror, Bodyswap, Canon-Typical Violence, Come Shot, Creepy, Established Relationship, Halloween, Injury, M/M, Mind Games, Monsters, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Shapeshifting, Swearing, Tricksters, Wincestiel - Freeform, no-one knows what's going on sometimes not even the author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:10:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnOddSock/pseuds/AnOddSock
Summary: After a long tiring day at work Cas is all ready for a night in on the sofa, feet up, troubles forgotten. But what awaits him home is something entirely different.Familiar faces turn into a nightmare of bizarre and unfathomable scenarios. Will any of them make it through the night the same as they were when it began?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rw_eaden](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rw_eaden/gifts).



> For rw_eaden's fic-o-ween challenge
> 
> The prompt I picked was this:
> 
> 22) Character A comes home to their partner after a long day at work. Then they get a phone call from their partner’s phone, despite the fact that their partner is right there in the other room, making a lot of noise. When Character A answers their frantic partner is on the other line, telling them to run.  

The long day at the office had dragged into a long evening at the office, and by the time Cas made it home he expected to find himself in an empty house. He walked in to find lights on and clattering coming from the kitchen.

“Sam?”

Sam wasn’t supposed to be home, Cas had called and suggested he should go meet Dean and have fun, since their plans had been ruined.

Dean was their long term boyfriend, he fit perfectly into their dynamic, and though he didn’t live with them they crashed at each other’s places often enough that they each had an assortment of belongings spread between the two homes, and felt at home enough wherever they were.

“Hey,” Cas called, grabbing Sam’s attention as he slipped out of his shoes and stuck his head through the swinging kitchen door. “What are you doing home?”

Sam turned to him startled.

“When did you get here?”

“Just got in, I didn’t expect you to be here, what happened to dinner with Dean?”

Sam looked shifty, before shrugging. “Did it, got back, that’s… okay right?”

Cas snorted, “Of course.”

Sam twitched, nose crinkling as his neck spasmed and his eye twitched before he settled his features out, smooth and blank.

Odd.

“Did you hurt yourself?”

“No.”

“... okay. Look I’ll go get changed, I was going to watch a movie, if you want to join me? I’m not up to anything strenuous.”

“Yes. Do that. Yes.”

Cas nodded, looking at the mess Sam had made of their countertops and the things spilling out of the cupboards.

“What,” he cleared his throat, “what are you doing?”

“Things. Just, looking.” his eyes bugged out, and he sniffed, and he… flickered.

Cas rubbed at his eyes. He was more tired than he thought, by a wide margin apparently.

He turned to head upstairs and caught sight of a shadow of movement behind him. He stopped, startled, and by the time he turned back there was nothing there.

It was going to be quite the evening if Sam was… well presumably he’d got high again, that was the only explanation, and Cas was so tired his eyes were playing tricks. They really weren’t as young as they used to be.

Halfway down the hall, socks squishing into the plush carpet his phone buzzed, Sam’s name lighting up the screen.

He picked up, rolling his eyes.

“Hi, Sam, miss me already?”

“What?” Sam’s voice hissed down the line.

“What?”

“Listen Cas, there isn’t time for games, where are you?”

“At home. We literally just saw each other. How high are you?”

“I’m not! And that wasn’t me.”

Cas sighed and sat down on the bottom step of the stairs, arms heavy, eyes weary.

“So where do you think you are if you’re not in our kitchen?”

“I’m at Dean’s, _with Dean_ , Cas listen—”

 _“What’s he saying?”_ Dean's voice echoed down the line. Cas frowned.

“Nothing yet—”

_“Well hurry up and explain!”_

“It’s hard, how would you explain this?”

“Guys.”

“Cas listen, get round to mine now, don’t think just get in the car, get here and don’t talk to me or Sam unless you see us together, capiche? There was that so hard?”

“Guys!”

 _“What?”_ They barked in unison.

Cas stood from his seat on the stairs, staring back at the door to the kitchen.

“Where are you?”

“We’re at Dean’s,” Sam said, quickly. “Like we said. Cas something weird is going on—”

“No, no you were here, I didn’t see Dean. If you’re so high you don’t know where you are that’s not good.”

He heard a gasp down the line and voices he wasn’t listening too, because the clattering was still coming from the kitchen and he could hear their voices down the line, but not in the house.

 _“Cas stop!”_ Dean yelled.

And also didn’t yell.

Because there was no sound of voices around him, the house was silent.

“That’s not Sam, whoever you think you saw, it isn’t him.”

Cas swallowed.

“It was.”

“No, Cas I’m here, I’m on the phone you’re talking to me,” Sam urged. “Please don’t go back to wherever they are, please, I need you to trust me. _It’s not me.”_

“I don’t understand.”

He pushed the swinging door a tiny way open and spied Sam leaning over the counter with his back to the Cas. He could hear the loud chewing noises, but there was no phone in his hand and he wasn’t speaking.

“We saw one too, we know it looks convincing, but Cas, it tried to — it wanted to — harm us.” Sam’s voice was frantic on the other end of the line. The kitchen didn’t have a sound in it other than sloppy chomping.

He backed away.

“If this is a joke…”

“It’s not,” came Dean’s harsh tone, “get out of there.”

Cas backed up, walking quicker. A dream, a dream or a hallucination, how tired did you have to be to start hearing things, or seeing things?

“What do I do?” he asked his partners over the phone.

“Castiel?” And that voice came from behind him.

“Yes!” he yelped.

“What are you doing?”

“I have to go back to the… to the office. To work. I forgot something.”

 _“Run!”_ a loud word shouted right into his ear. He flinched and pulled the phone away.

“It can wait until the… morning? Can’t it?” Sam said, sliding across the floor towards him.

“I...”

_“Get out of there now, run!”_

Cas took a stumbling step backwards, knocking into the wall and the picture frame hanging there.

“You’re not Sam.” he said quietly.

Sam halted, head tilting to one side.

“How can you really be sure?”

 _“Cas stop talking to it and run!”_ Dean yelled in his ear.

“They… they said,” he was acting unspeakably calm despite the situation and his pounding heart. “I’m talking to Sam right now?”

“And how do you know the Sam on your phone isn’t the fake one?”

Cas had been thinking the same thing, his brain aching at trying to understand an impossible situation. Except not impossible as it seemed to be happening, and real life things meant they must be possible.

 _“Cas, Cas look at it, really look, see how it moves.”_ Sam’s voice on the phone comforted him, and confused him, but he followed the advice.

He looked, watching closely for every small movement, and his mind rebelled at what he saw.

The creature looked human at first glance, all the right parts in all the right places. Until you looked at one part too long and noticed how it shifted, rolled and undulated, jerkily moving like a stop motion animation.

The face was all Sam though, as if most of the effort went into maintaining that illusion, it was smoother, more gentle and yet… flickering. The longer Cas looked the worse it seemed to get, and his eyes kept wanting to slide away.

“Stay away.” he forced out, spit out. “Sam, Dean, I see it, I see it!”

_“What are you still doing there? Get the hell away from it!”_

He turned, and the creature lunged, he sidestepped, careening into the staircase and dropped his phone. He tried to lurch for it but the thing nearly grabbed his wrist and he withdrew with a hiss.

They squared off again, facing each other, but the door was behind Cas, there was no way for the creature to stop him.

He picked up a boot and brandished it, “Stay away!”

He took a halting step backward, inching toward the door.

“Stay a while, you look awfully tasty.”

“I don’t appreciate that insinuation, get out of my house!”

“Are you sure you won’t join us?”

Cas whirled around at the sound of Dean’s voice behind him, gasping as he - or a thing that looked like him - slid piece by piece into place between Cas and his line of escape.

“What are you?”

“We’re you,” Dean shrugged, face lighting up in such a familiar smile that Cas was startled and dismayed. “Or at least, we will be soon.”

Something grabbed Cas from behind and he cried out in surprise. The not-Dean surged forward and wrenched his not-weapon out of his hand, throwing it away. Then grabbed Cas’s arm and sunk teeth into the flesh.

Cas thrashed, making the skin tear even more, and sobbing at the pain.

“Get off, get off!”

“Soon, but not before he’s had his fill.” Sam’s soothing voice filled his ears and Cas’s sobs sputtered out.

The last thing he was aware of was hot breath against his ear, a solid weight behind him, before his vision darkened and the world slipped away.

 

* * *

 

When Cas woke it was gently at first and then with a surge as he remembered what happened. He rose up, flailing, his arm windmilling even as his eyes told him he was in a small, dark space. He scrambled to his feet and found himself in the coat closet.

 _His_ coat closet.

In their home. Less than eight feet from where he’d been attacked.

His arm throbbed, a bite mark clear on his skin. But it didn’t look fresh, it looked like a wound that was a few days old. Not clear, not bleeding, but purpled and angry still.

He touched it gingerly, or, he tried to. His hand went right through his own body. He cried out, bewildered and tried again, his hand met no resistance and slid right through his own arm.

He took half a step sideways and his body collided with the wall. The wall which was solid. He didn’t understand, at all.

Curling and uncurling his fingers he watched as they jerked and shimmied in the air, looking exactly like the creature had — the _not Sam_. His breathing sped up, panic spiking, and then anger, they’d turned him into one of them.

He raged, and railed, and lost focus… and fell through the wall he’d been leaning on.

Stumbling sideways through space that should have been hard wall and kitchen cupboard he came out sliding across the floor. And his mouth dropped open as he inhaled in shock.

He was there, he was looking at another him. Standing neatly in the middle of the kitchen, picking specks of dust of his jacket, smoothing down his hair.

_His hair, **his**._

And this Castiel looked much more… complete. Had weight and depth and solidity. They’d stolen his face, his body.

Had he been put into theirs, or had they copied his? His spiralling thoughts were interrupted by the front door banging open and Dean and Sam shouting, yelling for him.

“Where are you? Cas are you safe, what happened?”

“If you sons of bitches have hurt him—”

Dean didn’t get to finish as the Cas in front of him called back: “I’m here, I’m okay, they’re gone!”

Cas spluttered as he watched himself walk out of the kitchen, smirking at him as he passed.

He tried to follow but his body, or… whatever body he was in now, didn’t respond very well. He felt himself _crackle_ , joints or skin or the weird illusion of his clothes catching and folding as he tried to walk.

He just wanted to be where Sam was, to see Dean too, get their attention and tell them it wasn’t safe. As he thought it he glided forward a short way, coming to an abrupt halt when he noticed what was happening. He closed his eyes and tried not to think, tried to just imagine being with them and found he could slide forward that way.

Blank, be calm, picture Sam, and his body took him there. It was so much easier to glide than to step.

He couldn’t direct his passage through the house and more than one wall stood between him and the voices he could hear from the other room, he stalled in front of the first one and it took long minutes to make his body move forward again. When he got to another he screwed up his eyes, tried to throw up his hands and stayed focused.

It was a jerky stop and start movement to make it through to the sitting room and he came careening through the wall suddenly incredibly nervous and unsure at what he would see, knocking a lamp off a side table as he reappeared. He winced, he liked that lamp.

He looked up to find Sam and Dean rushing to their feet, looking at the fallen evidence and the not-Cas staring right at him.

“What the hell?” Dean muttered.

“Could it be—”

“If you say ‘the wind’ I will end you.”

“Fine. Cas… you said they were gone?” Sam said, turning worried eyes to the creature.

“I thought they were.” it turned away from Cas and moved toward Sam.

 _No!_ Cas tried to scream, _Stay away from him_.

“Maybe it’s something else?” Sam said, standing on alert.

“Two freaky things in one night? I don’t think so.” Dean replied.

“Well I can’t see anything here, can you?” the creature asked, blatantly watching Castiel as he said it.

“No, but we don’t know what else they can do.” Dean said.

“The internet came up with nothing helpful, at least nothing I could find in the first few search pages.”

“Oh yeah,” Dean said, leaning around Sam to look at the person he thought was Cas. “Did I tell you he spent the entire drive over here looking things up? In his element researching stuff.”

“If our lives weren’t at risk you can’t tell me you wouldn’t find it at least a little interesting.” Sam countered.

“I’m glad you came to find me,” the creature said. “I wouldn’t want to face this alone.”

“I’m glad you weren’t hurt before we got here.” Sam smiled, reaching a hand out to squeeze what should have been Cas’s hand but really wasn’t.

Cas was worried, and getting angrier by the second, he hadn’t moved since he knocked over the lamp, and he was too unfocused now to manage to do it. He wanted to yell in frustration but no sound came out when he tried.

“Aliens, now they would be interesting, this” Dean waved a hand, “this is just a horror movie gone wrong. And horror movies end when the bad guys gets killed. So—”

“Do not suggest wooden stakes as a solution again or I’m not coming over to your place for a month out of protest at your stupidity.” Sam said.

“Look, wooden stakes have a much higher chance of working than… than a gun, or a blade, unless you happen to have any silver bullets lying around.”

“Silver bullets?” the creature asked.

“Good for werewolves, if science fiction is to be believed. But seen as we don’t know what we’re up against, it probably wouldn’t work.” Sam said. “I think we should go somewhere public, try and figure out what’s going on. Local news isn’t reporting anything else strange but maybe we should go to the police.”

“I don’t think public is a good idea, what if we get attacked and it looks like we’re fighting regular humans?” the creature said, shooting Cas a glance and a smirk.

It was trying to keep them isolated, keep them here. Cas got angry and protective and flew forward a few feet, stopping again in shock when he realised what he’d managed to do.

“And what would we tell the police?” Dean asked. “If we tell them our boyfriend tried to hurt us, all they’re going to do is put an arrest warrant out on Cas.”

“Which brings us back to our need to work out what is going on!” Sam threw his arms up in frustration and slumped back down onto the sofa.

“Can’t we just assume it’s over and go on with our lives?” the creature asked.

Sam and Dean turned to stare at him in incredulity. _It’s not me!_ Cas willed them to realised, to notice, _see how much he’s not acting like me!_

“So, some _thing_ , breaks into our houses, looking exactly like one of us, tries to eat us, and you want to what… go watch a movie?” Dean asked, eyebrows raised an extra inch above his eyes.

“Well I got rid of them, didn’t I?” it replied, swinging it’s arms awkwardly.

“How did you manage that again?” Sam asked, “I’m a little fuzzy on the details, it took me and Dean to fight off _one_ and we didn’t manage to harm it at all. Whatever you did, it could be the secret to understanding all this.”

The creature wavered and Cas raged, how many more lies could it tell them that they’d believed because it looked like someone they trusted? He may not have understood how any of this was happening, but he understood one thing very clearly, he had to communicate with them.

The very clear thought, the purity of his desire, settled into his bones and suddenly he felt more solid and more real than he had since waking in the closet. With a shout he took a tumbling step forward, surprised at his own solid weight.

Everyone in the room turned to look at him, Sam going wide eyed and Dean jumping back in shock. They stood there, all mute, for a few long heartbeat stunned and confused.

And then Dean took the lead and tried to run forward and ram his shoulder into Cas. Cas clenched everything, and felt the moment he disappeared and Dean careened through the space he’d been taking up and slammed into the wall instead.

“Dean!”

“What is going on?” the creature muttered, voice exactly as Cas’s should’ve sounded.

Dean clambered to his feet, rubbing at his sore head and shoulder. Sam was by his side in an instant.

“M fine, nothing bruised but my ego.”

“What were you thinking running at it like that?”

“Dean, you could’ve been seriously hurt.” the creature said. Cas glowered at it.

Small he needed to start small, he could make himself seen if he was focused. Knowing that gave him something to try.

“Someone had to do something.” Dean said.

“Using yourself as a human weapon is really not the smartest idea.” Sam said gently.

“Staring like a goldfish wasn’t your best plan either.”

“I was surprised!”

“Me too! Cas you said they ran away when you tried to fight them, seems like they didn’t leave after all.”

“They disappeared, I just assumed… I thought they were gone.”

“I think we all need to stop assuming anything and look at the facts,” Sam began.

Yes, facts, like the fact that the person in the room with you isn’t who you think it is, Cas thought.

 

* * *

 

Cas watched in fascinated horror as the three of them got settled at the dining table, pads of paper, pens, laptops, and a hefty selection of Dean’s science fiction books and graphic novels spread out across the tabletop.

He was glad they had decided that they shouldn’t split up, that if they left each other’s sights there was no way to tell who was who anymore. Cas could tell it infuriated the creature immensely not to have the chance to be alone with either of them, and Cas grinned smugly at it. Smarter than they looked, his boys, despite how much they bickered between themselves.

“Look, make a list of everything we know, everything we’ve seen, and I’ll start cross referencing.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll do the boring job.” Dean replied.

“I will… organise.” the creature said.

They gave it strange looks at that, but Cas knew that the two of them worked well as a team, and wouldn’t think it was _that_ weird that Cas was on the outside of that team. He didn’t mind usually, he liked seeing them put their heads together and how they connected and complimented, but now he’d give anything to be included, to be seen.

He’d have to do something about it.

The hours ticked by, and they sat diligently at their posts, trading theories and arguing. Sam’s analytical mind meeting Dean’s instinctual ideas.

Cas left them to it but daren't go far, he didn’t want them out of sight.

He spent a long time just trying to focus, to use his deep breathing exercise and quiet his mind enough that he could control the body he inhabited. It was infuriating, having to will so hard just to do things that should’ve come without thought.

All he wanted was to pick up a pen and be able to write them a message. Anything. Reappear, knock things over, shout. He wasn’t overly picky, but he decided on a pen, and his hand, and he had to make it work.

Every time he thought he’d got it Sam or Dean would say something about getting more coffee, or a snack, or using the bathroom and Cas would drop everything to make sure they stuck together.

They went quiet as the ticking clock neared midnight, dozing and lagging at the table, and some small part of Cas realised this would be the perfect time to learn to magically pick an item with his incorporeal hands. The hour of changing, it would creep Sam out and amuse Dean immensely, when they got out of this.

If.

If they got out of this.

Time ticked past and quietness settled over the world, and Cas grew tired, worried, forlorn. What if he were stuck like this, whatever this was, forever? What if he could only ever watch life happen and not participate?

What if the last thing he witnessed were the deaths of his loved ones while he stood silent and incapable of help? Only watching over them like an angel… some guardian he would make.

The thought drove him to anger, and anger fuelled his thoughts. He would not watch them be hurt, or be killed, or changed. He refused.

His focused narrowed like a laser beam and his hand closed around the pen, he wrote in large letters on the wood of the table

_It’s me_

Dean stood from his chair with a clatter, Sam scraped his backwards with a gasp.

“What the fuck?”

“What do we do?”

“Don’t touch it!”

“Get out of here, fuck off, you dick!”

They spoke over each other, yelling and gesturing, the creature, so long silent beside them slunk into the shadows, eyes boring into Cas with hatred.

Cas shouted back, mouthing the words _it’s me it’s me see me_ and with his resolve his flickering image came more into focus. He looked imploringly and Sam, who stood mouth agape.

Dean snarled a little, throwing his hand out to make Sam back away.

Cas pointed desperately at the words on the table, and at himself, willing them to see and understand.

Something hit him in the chest… flew through his chest and he lost his focus, and disappeared.

He stood aghast as he watched the creature lower a raised arm, the mug he’d thrown unharmed on the carpet behind Cas.

“See, if you do it with enough willpower they leave.” it said.

_No! That’s not true!_

“Fuck.” Dean wiped a hand down his face.

Sam was grey, ashen with his brows drawn deeply together. He stood apart from the the others, and Cas saw his wheels turning.

“What if—”

He looked long and hard at Dean, and at the creature.

 _Yes,_ Cas thought, _please see it._

“What if it’s really Cas?” Sam whispered.

“Cas is right there, look at him, he’s solid, he’s here.” Dean walked over and gripped the creatures arm, who leaned into the touch, nodding.

“But… ”

“Don’t let it fool you, Sam, we have to stick together. Believe your eyes, not lies.”

Cas turned around with a scream. Silent and long, frustration and fear bubbling out. He slid slowly across the room but halted when he heard Dean’s next words.

“Anyway, if it were really Cas that’s not how he’d get my attention.”

His thoughts spun away from him in a flash, multitudes of memories filling his head. Of course. _Of course._

Every time they had an argument, or every time Dean wanted to draw Cas to the bedroom, or every time they wanted to annoy the shit out of each other they would blast the same song on repeat until it got the others attention.

Sam would roll his eyes every time, and leave them to it, it was the one private joke that Cas and Dean shared that had nothing to do with anyone else. The thought was as bright in his mind as sunbeam, clear and strong, and he felt a surge of concentrated energy.

In mere seconds he materialised in his and Sam’s bedroom — and hey there was a perk to being less-than-corporeal — and he moved like a broad stroke through still waters until he was by the iPod dock. His hands moved, and _touched_ , pressing buttons and finding the right song.

The whirring electric buzz started quiet and the keyboards kicked in followed by the sound of cheering crowds.

By the time the guitar and bass began, Cas was figuring how to click the volume up high. His focus slipped a little in excitement, but he finally got it up, as high as it could go.

Lyrics shouted out, echoing, he hoped, through the whole house.

 _We’re leaving together_  
But still it’s farewell  
And maybe we’ll come back  
To earth, who can tell?

He didn’t have to wait long, footsteps echoed on the stairs, pounding along the hallway and the door wrenched open and there Dean stood, heaving lungs and eyes wide.

“Cas?”

He looked around the room like a wild animal, searching and eager, frenzied.

_It’s the final countdown  
The final countdown_

Cas smiled at the chorus, lurching forward to meet him, and became more solid. Dean half recoiled but held his ground, and then walked a couple of hesitant steps forward.

“It’s me,” Cas thought, and his shaking not-muscled mouth made a sound. His first sound in hours!

A sound that became a shout as a shadow slid behind Dean, forming into a shape, a man. A creature that looked just like Sam and nothing like him, Cas pointed horrified.

Dean had come alone! Why had he come alone?

The creature caught Dean by the neck, and sunk it’s teeth into the flesh of his shoulder. He flailed, and went down, shouting in pain and then shuddering into quietness.

_Will things ever be the same again_

_It’s the final countdown_

_Fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for chapter two where things will go from kinda creepy to full on bizarre... 
> 
> Comments and kudos always appreciated if you made it this far. And feel free to tell me what works and what doesn't, this is a slightly different genre to my usual fare after all, I'd love to know if it's working out?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been playing around with this for a month and a half and I finally decided it's as done as it's going to get and I should upload and get it out of my brain.
> 
> Have you ever tried writing dialogue between three characters and their three dopplegangers? No? Well, I have and _I wouldn't recommend it_.

Cas had a front row seat to what happened next and it horrified him. Every time he tried to imagine the same thing happening to his body too he couldn’t believe it, and he’d look down and see his own flickering form and know it was true, and feel a wave of crushing sadness and rising anger that one of the men he loved was being subjected to the same thing.

It passed in seconds but it filled his mind until there was nothing else.

Dean’s collapsed body slowly… dimmed. He grew paler, but not in colour, in solidity. Like he was fading from existence, slowly being erased.

And as Dean got less solid, his counterpoint, the creature that had bitten him grew stronger and more vivid until it was wearing Dean’s features and posture like a glove.

“Why?” Castiel growled, voice strong and sure but falling flat as though it didn’t carry any weight. “What did you do to us?”

His anger and fear were, for once, making him strong and he felt his own body grow heavier, sinking into the carpet instead of grazing the top of it without sensation.

“You made us, you begat us and now we take what is owed. Now we become you.”

A second shape appeared behind Dean, and the not-Dean, flickering and glimmering under the harsh yellow bulb of the hallway.

Three of them, then? One had Cas’s body, one had Dean’s now, and one was left. One left for Sam. One for each of them but Cas still didn’t understand what or why. Not to mention the how.

The creature with Dean’s stolen body turned, taking a step and turning to leave and the other slid slowly into the wall and disappeared.

Cas rushed to Dean’s side, aware in the back of his mind that he was moving with much more freedom and ease but not stopping to examine it. The dull light of the bedroom, lit only with lamps, threw everything into contrast. Dean was swathed in shadows with his head lolling onto the plush carpet, looking for all the world like he’d fallen asleep and slipped halfway out of the world.

“Dean?” he croaked out. It came out small and fell flat again.

Dean didn’t move, even his chest barely rising and falling. It gave Cas pause, as he realised he had barely noticed breathing himself since he woke up. What had these things done to them?

The worried thoughts stole his focus and he lost some of the solidity he’d gained.

But Sam, Sam was out there alone, they had to get to him.

“Dean!”

He stirred softly. Cas focused every bit of worry he could and pushed it forward, forcing himself to be more there, more present. And he reached out and touched Dean, a hand on his shoulder, and he growled “Get. Up!” into Dean’s ear.

Dean flew awake, eyes springing open and tried to scrabble backwards. He looked at Cas in horror, and down at himself, and the shaking image of him wavered even more.

He was mouthing something, trying to speak, but his lips barely moved. He tried to bring a hand up to his throat, conscious of his lack of voice, but caught sight of his whispy shuddering form and recoiled.

“I know, I know, but it’s still you, you’re just… they changed you, but you have to get up. We have to get to Sam!”

Cas reached for him again, to pull him up, and was suddenly shocked that touching Dean was much less difficult than he expected. He could grip Dean’s shirt easily, and hold on, and the contact buzzed down his limb making his jerking form feel heavier.

He frowned.

Dean cleared his throat.

Cas smiled at him, he was learning, getting there quicker than Cas had, but not quick enough. Talking to Dean was easier too, they were on the same wavelength, Cas guessed, and could communicate on an equal footing.

“I can’t believe you didn’t think it was me,” Cas said.

“Yeah we—”

The rest of his sentence cut off and Cas shook his head.

“Stop thinking so hard, focus on one thought, one motive, but let it fade into the background and just _do it_.”

Dean nodded and took a second to think. “What is going on?”

“Those things are stealing our life or our bodies or some shit, I don’t know, but Sam’s in danger so get your ass up.”

Dean was motivated by fury, protective instinct, and the want to win, and Cas knew it. He just had to get him moving.

“Why couldn’t you see that that _thing_ wasn’t me?” he tried to keep goading Dean into annoyance, pestering him to interact. He got his own arms around Dean’s torso, trying to guide him into movement.

“Would you have—”

Again Dean lost his voice, but Cas had him upright now, wavering, but upright.

There was a crash from downstairs and Cas flinched.

“Come on!” he tried to will himself down, back through the floor again, but realised Dean was still struggling in the middle of the bedroom.

Dean shook his head in bewilderment, fear creeping into the edges of his expression.

“Go!” he mouthed.

“Not without you, we stick together.”

Cas reached for his hand and there was a zap, a jolt of electricity as their flesh touched. In a flash Cas realised he was almost breathing normally again, he’d got so used to just existing for hours that it was a shock.

“Huh,” Dean said. Looking up with confusion at Cas when his words came out louder and more clearly.

“Apparently contact with another makes us stronger.”

“Maybe you should’ve tried that earlier,” Dean said with a pointed glance.

“Next time you find yourself alone at the mercy of some weird supernatural phenomenon I’ll see how well you manage it.”

Cas heard indistinct yelling and yearned to be able to protect Sam, to help him, for him not to be alone. Now more solid, moving through walls didn’t seem like much of an option. He yanked Dean forward and they struggled a few steps worth of space through the house.

“I fucking hope there’s never a next time,” Dean muttered.

“I hope we can get out of this one. I can’t believe you didn’t know it was me.”

“Would you have believed it?”

“Maybe not, but I _told_ you!”

“Oh well, _good for you_ , but I don’t tend to believe ghosts.”

“We are not ghosts.”

“How do you know?”

They were at the top of the stairs now and began jerkily making their way downwards, Sam’s furious voice floating to them more and more clearly.

“Do you feel dead?”

“I don’t feel alive,” Dean said.

“That’s not necessarily the same thing.”

“You sound like a cryptic fortune teller.”

“I refuse to have my body stolen, so I refuse to believe I’m dead. And now we’re together, that has to count for something.”

“I dunno, I feel like they’re stronger than us.”

They sputtered their way down the stairs in fits and starts and nothing seemed to be moving fast enough but at least they were moving.

“Is that Dean Winchester giving in?” Cas said, looking at him sidelong.

“No!” Dean said defensively. “Well, maybe a little, I’m so confused dude. Rescuing Sam is one thing but then what?”

Dean’s splintered thoughts made his movement slower and sluggish.

“One thing at a time, Sam first, step one, stay with me.”

It felt strange taking charge, guiding Dean through this when he barely understood it himself, but he’d had time to get used to it so he supposed he had to do his part.

Dean nodded, eyes narrowed, and they practically flew through the house.

Their marginally solid forms had some trouble with doors, sticking slightly, a resistance around them like pushing through pudding — or treacle. Cas headed towards Sam’s voice, the yelling in the kitchen, and they made it through, the door swinging slightly behind them.

The scene they were met with would have been comical, if not for Sam being so frantic. He was stood on the kitchen island, a frying pan in one hand and a large rolling pin in the other.

“Stay the fuck back, I told you, don’t touch me!”

He swung wildly in a large arc, marking his territory.

Cas had to smile. Smart capable Sam, he’d found high ground, he’d got himself to a good vantage point.

The creatures that looked like himself and Dean stood either side of the workbench, hands outstretched, lips spread into grimaces of pain.

“Don’t you trust us?” said the not-Cas.

“Come with us,” said the not-Dean.

“I don’t know what to think, you ran off, there was screaming. I don’t know! Back up and let me think!”

Cas tugged Dean’s hand, he was staring mouth agape at his doppelgänger, eyes furious but wary.

“Together, right?” Cas said. Just catching Dean’s eye made it easier, more connection, more stability, it made him feel stronger and he felt the shift around them as he became visible. Weight and depth and physicality returning to the world.

Sam dropped the rolling pin with a clatter.

“What-what the hell?”

“It’s us! It’s me!” Cas’s voice was a croak, hardly even words and he shook his head.

“It’s you? Really you?” Sam replied, not letting his guard down, still watching the creatures either side of him.

Cas nodded and Dean nodded too.

“ _Well what the fuck guys?”_ Sam hissed.

Dean was squaring up, turning to face down the thing that was wearing his face. He wavered slightly, and Cas squeezed his hand. He didn’t plan to let go now, and Dean had to know he wasn’t alone. Dean squeezed back, licked his lips, and narrowed his eyes.

“You get away from him,” he growled, and every syllable was clear and strong.

The things looked at them with bemused expressions.

“So much stronger than we thought,” one said.

“Trying to resist the natural way of being.”

“We should be able to acclimate to your genetic code but we are having difficulty.”

They were solid alright, really there, physical in all the ways Cas had been unable to be. But there was still something off about them, once they weren’t trying to hide it, like they didn’t know how to move in the skin. Heads tilted, hands shaped into claws.

Sam was blinking down at them, breathing heavily. He looked at Cas, and there was desperation clear in his eyes.

“Who’s who?” he said, voice trembling. He swallowed and tried again. “They’re really the bad guys aren’t they?” he said pointing.

Cas _felt_ Dean roll his eyes, the way he could do it with his full body.

“Duh, you really think we’d trap you standing on the kitchen counter?”

“Well I don’t know! You — they — were trying to calm me down, and you would do that!”

“Well we’d never bite you, unless you asked, and we’d never steal your body so believe us, it’s us.” Dean said.

“How are you doing this so well already?” Cas asked with wonderment. “I couldn’t, for hours.”

“I’ve got you, and we’re gonna get Sam. Hear that fuckers? You don’t get a piece of him.”

“What did you do to them?” Sam said, rounding on his attackers, brandishing his remaining weapon.

When neither responded he struck the creature with Dean’s face around the back of the head.

It hissed and clawed at him, and he backed up, holding on to the rafters overhead for balance.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“You!” they replied in unison, each pacing back and forth, not giving Sam enough space to jump clear without being in range of their arms.

“Not happening,” Cas snarled.

“Can you… can you turn back?” Sam asked, soft hazel eyes framed by worried brows and nervous glances.

Cas flickered, he’d been wondering the same thing and the enormity of everything they didn’t understand overwhelmed him.

Dean threw an arm around his shoulders, hand pressing firmly on his chest where it circled around him. “One thing at a time, remember?” it didn’t seem to be spoken out loud, more as though it was being transferred one word at a time into Cas’s consciousness, but it was Dean and he was right. Focus.

“They cannot unbecome themselves,” said one creature.

“We are you, you are us, what could you do steal back your own life?” replied the other.

“You… you’ve cursed them?” Sam said, brandishing his frying pan to keep back Cas’s double when it tried to claw up onto the surface top.

“Not quite, not really,” it hissed.

Dean’s doppelgänger rounded on him, pointing a finger.

“ _He_ cursed you all.”

Dean faltered, going thin and transparent. He mouth was moving but no sound came out.

“What do you mean?” Cas asked, clutching Dean’s hand beside him, trying to draw him back into being present.

“How could I have… I didn’t do any— you!” Dean’s voice crackled, broken sounds as he accused them, swore and glared, but he was nervous and trying to back up a step.

“Dean?” Cas tried to pull him close. “Don’t listen to them.”

“It’s true,” sang one, with Cas’s voice, deep baritone rumblings of laughter following. “We wouldn’t exist on this plane without his help.”

Sam backed up a few steps, turning around so he could see where the creatures had begun to circle towards Cas and Dean.

“If you’re not going to explain—” he began.

“You know, don’t you Sam, you are the cleverest of them all. Saving you for last was like saving dessert.”

A third creature, still weak and jerking with uncoordinated movements, materialised through the back wall.

“Sam!” Dean cried, pointing.

Sam about turned, and gasped. It looked like a warped and incomplete image of Cas, struggling forward in broken movements, but a grin spread across his face. It flickered, shucking it’s image and morphing into Dean’s visage, and again to meld into Sam’s own face.

Cas felt his anxiety mount, he had been bitten by a creature, so had Dean, they couldn’t give this one a chance to get to Sam.

Sam scrambled backwards, losing his balance as the not-Dean grabbed his legs trying to pull him down. Dean lunged, swiping and batting at the thing clawing at Sam, his laser focus making him present and solid. Sam tumbled the last step off the counter and Cas swung forward to break his fall, _protect, save, help_ he thought and his arms connected with Sam’s frame and guided him to his feet.

“Wha-!” Sam twisted away, but seeing it was Cas he leaned in, grabbing at every piece of him he could reach. Cas’s elation crashed though his resolve and he lost solidity, Sam stumbled on his feet, staggering at the loss as he careened through Cas and beyond into the wall.

Why was it so hard to stay present, stay physical? He couldn’t live like this.

Dean surged backwards, arms thrust out and Sam stepped behind him. Dean caught Cas’s arm and pulled him forwards, creating a barrier between Sam and their assailants.

“Stay back Sam, they can hurt you, but not us.”

“How do you know that’s true?”

“What more could they do to us? It’s you they’re after now, you’re the last one. That’s what you want isn’t it, to complete the set?” Dean asked, venom spitting with his words.

Cas marvelled at him, his anger holding him steadier than Cas had felt in hours. Cas didn’t function like that, too many emotions scattered him, he need cool reserves, calm knowledge in the face of confusion.

He needed answers.

“Tell us what you are,” he demanded.

“We are you.” they replied in unison.

“No.” he stated it like fact. “You may have attacked us and stolen something from us but you cannot ever _be_ us.”

“We were made to be you, made from you,” the not-Dean replied. “He brought us into your life, ask him.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Dean fumed. But Cas saw him slip, worry creasing his brows. “How could I?”

“Unknowingly, but no less completely.”

Cas’s mind wandered through a dozen, _a hundred_ , different possibilities in the space of a few seconds. He felt his form trickle to barely a whisper as he clamoured for one clear thought.

“You… didn’t exist, and now with Dean’s help, you do?” it was a string of thought leading to a precise question. It helped. His hand passed through Dean’s as he clutched for it tighter and he saw deep concern in Dean’s eyes.

Defiance too, bullheadedness and surety, but worry.

“What did I do?”

“You gifted us your seed, on the night of hallows eve. And so we became corporeal, and now we will become physical with your help. From you we grow.”

“ _His seed?_ ” Sam hissed. “Who did you have sex with?” he asked turning to Dean with frantic eyes.

“No one!” Dean replied, indignant. His face turned hard and closed off.

Cas was confused but couldn’t see that the creatures had any reason to lie, they appeared to be convinced this would all work in their favour, what reason would they have to deceive them?

“We’re not mad,” Cas said, “we’re open, you can tell us.”

“I didn’t!” Dean insisted. “I…”

“What?” Sam asked, reaching for Dean and turning him aside to try and get him to open up, to give the illusion of privacy.

“It wasn’t sex, I just… myself, and,” Dean’s voice was wavering. _He_ was wavering.

“You spilled everywhere, so careless.” the not-Dean grinned, vicious, eyes like coals in the dull light. “You spilled on us, our vessels, the walls were thin that night and we made the crossing with your gift as a beacon.”

“The walls… between worlds?” Sam asked, looking up sharply.

“You’re from the spirit world?” Cas added.

“Not just spirits, do you know nothing? The veil, all the worlds, connected. Ours is bleak but yours… so full of life and we take what we need and what is owed. We are owed… you.” Not-Cas smiled placidly. It looked all wrong on his face and Cas shuddered.

“How did we ever not know these things weren’t you, weren’t human?” Dean said, throwing his hands up. “You talk like something out of a bad b-film.”

“We talk like ourselves. You humans are so… juvenile.”

“Then why would you want to come here?” Sam demanded. “Why try and be us if you don’t like us?”

“We were summoned! We came not at our own behest! He brought us upon your world, we just pick at the wreckage like carrion plunders for meat. You have what we need to live here so we will claim you.” They were speaking in unison now, both mouths moving at once, and the shadow creature flitting behind them emanating hissing sounds along with them.

“How did he summon you?” Cas asked, gripping Dean’s shirt in his fist.

“He took his pleasure and his life force spilled over three dark orange fruits. The field of hewn plant life is such a weak spot we are drawn to it. The energy of all the young ones ideas, it fills the place with magic.”

“Dark orange, plants,” Sam muttered, his eyes tracking back and forth as he put the pieces of information into place.

Cas was too busy watching the creatures, stepping forward when they tried to sidle towards the three of them, so he didn’t see Dean fade but he felt the loss of solidity beside his shoulder.

“Pumpkins,” Dean whispered, croaking.

“Pumpkins what?” Sam asked.

“I… you sent me pictures and I was…” he hung his head, and Cas turned to see him laughing, embarrassed and laughing.

He caught Sam’s eye, he knew when they’d last sent Dean pictures. Kinky bedroom pictures. Enticing images of them in the throes of passion. The night before Halloween. With a _“wish you were here!”_ caption attached to each one.

“Dean, did you… how do I put this delicately?”

“I don’t think you can,” Sam cut in.

“Did you blow a load in a pumpkin patch?”

Dean nodded, and then grinned with a shrug.

“Why?” Sam asked, incredulous. “Scratch that, how? Public indecency man, it’s a thing, have a little self restraint.”

“How about you and your husband stop showing off and getting me riled up when I’m running errands you ever think about that?”

“Dean, weren’t you concerned about being seen?”

“There was no one there! You, the entire thing, you — look does it matter? No-one saw, no-one was ever supposed to even know.”

“So what you just find a back patch behind a large pile of Halloween merchandise and just go to town? Talk me through the process here,” Sam said, joking, incredulous.

“Is this really the time?” Cas interrupted.

“See Cas is on my side,” Dean smiled.

“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“So, okay, his seed or whatever made you manifest how does that work?” Sam asked the creatures.

“You know, you read it,” they replied. The two solid ones had their heads cocked at an unnatural angle, hands spread Cas could see their fingernails were too sharp and their teeth were too long.

“I….”

“Sam, figure it out, you know you can,” Cas willed him to have an answer. They needed it.

“You need a vessel, a beginning. Food… it’s sustenance, a way into life. But you can’t be sustained by it. You, you have to have more, nothing will be enough until you consume a host.”

“That’s why you were gorging on food?” Cas asked, unnerved. “Waiting for me until I could give you what you really need.”

“The spirit is breathed into being, the food is the offering, you are the sacrifice. Our existence depends on all these events becoming one. It is rare. Without one, we could not, can not, live here.”

“But why us?” Dean demanded. “Why not grab the first people you found.”

“There was a vessel opened to us, three fruits, three of you, three of us. We are tied to you, by him.” they pointed in unison at Dean.

“My sperm, but that’s just me…?”

“But it was brought about by these two, it held their essence in its fulfilment.”

“That’s some voodoo bull crap,” Dean said.

“Actually, voodoo—”

“Not now, Sammy.”

“How did you find us — him — the world is… big. Are you drawn to us?” Cas asked.

“We followed the trail of his deed, and found the three of you connected. Once we were familiar it was not difficult.”

“Followed… because of his body or something?”

Dean groaned, hanging his head.

“What?” Cas asked, taking his eyes off the target of his attention and turning to Dean.

“The pumpkins,” Dean whispered. He was fading, losing focus around the edges.

“You didn’t,” Sam said voice pitched high, eyes wide.

“Didn’t what?” Cas asked again, not following.

Dean nodded glumly.

“You jizzed on three pumpkins and _then you brought them home?_ ” Sam screeched.

“What was I supposed to do, leave them there? Because that wouldn't have been inappropriate at all,” Dean said, gesturing with his hands up.

“They’re not the ones you had on your porch? That you said you got right before Halloween as a last minute impulse buy?”

Dean grimaced. “What else was I going to do with them?”

“Throw them away?”

“Guys,” Cas tried to bring their attention back to the present.

“And waste the ten bucks they cost me?”

“Guys!”

 _“Enough!”_ a screech, a wail.

The creatures pounced, and only Cas was watching. He hauled Dean backwards by the scruff of his collar and stepped up to meet them. He caught each by the face, his anger fuelling every movement and every drive he had. _Protect, hold back._

With strength he didn’t know he had he threw them both to the ground, slamming them down onto their backs. His arm slipped past the countertop beside him, disappearing into it slightly but the creatures in his right grip collided with it with an awful thunk. It screeched again and clawed out at him, he flung himself backwards to get out of its reach.

The creature cradled its head as the other jumped back to its feet, but Dean was on alert now, squaring up to the third wavering creature that had hung back. It was swaying back and forth, it’s too wide eyes fixated on Sam. It would only need a second, a moment, to sink it’s teeth in and then… Cas didn’t know. Once they were all turned would there be any way to save themselves?

He caught Sam’s eye, and Sam nodded. Cas moved himself closer, his need for Sam’s presence an easy thing to hone in on, to draw himself to.

“What now?” Dean huffed, picking up a heavy cookery book and lobbing it passed Cas into the face of his advancing lookalike.

Everything slowed down and then sped up all at once. Three inhuman bodies moving toward them, Sam standing ground until the very last second, Cas waiting for the signal — for whatever Sam had in mind.

“The car!” Sam yelled, dodging backwards and holding the swinging door open so they could more easily follow.

“What?” Dean asked, eyes trained on the threat.

“Car, now, follow me. I have an idea.”

Cas backed up, keeping himself between Sam, Dean, and the creatures. Through the door in one sweep, he watched out the corner of his eye as Sam sprinted down the hallway, grabbing his keys off the side table as he ran and left the house at full pelt. When he was sure Sam was far enough away Cas thought about following and found himself instantly beside Dean’s Impala. He blinked in confusion, looking about at the cold night surrounding him, but feeling none of the chill.

“In, get in,” Sam fumbled with the keys, glancing at the house more than he was watching what he was doing.

Dean appeared, halfway across the lawn towards the driveway, skating along on skittering legs.

They all tumbled into the car, Sam yanking open the driver's seat, Dean neatly sliding through the metal to sit beside him, and Cas finally focusing enough to make his body fully materialise in the back seat.

“You just want an excuse to drive my car don’t you?” Dean asked, his tone was light, joking, but his body was coiled taut while he watched the house. “Get us out of here.”

Cas followed his line of sight as two fully formed creatures came galloping out of the house, a third, paler and thinner, fluttering along behind them.

Sam kicked the car into drive and screeched away from the house, the car twisting on its wheels until he pulled it straight.

“Easy, don’t fight her,” Dean encouraged.

Sam only nodded, fully concentrated on his driving. He checked the mirror and only unhunched his shoulders when he could see the creatures falling too far behind.

Cas grabbed for Dean’s shoulder, his thoughts were scattered and the contact made it easier to be more present. He’d just fought off two attackers, two inhuman attackers, without pausing to think. It had worked and they’d got away, but he was buzzing and alert with fear.

What would they do now?

“If they can find us wherever we are, what’s the plan? Just going to run from them forever?” Dean asked once the house was out of sight.

“Well, a moving target is harder to hit, for one. But hopefully not,” Sam replied, hands steady on the wheel but nerves clear in his voice.

“So? Elaborate.”

“You still have the pumpkins?”

“Yeah, I think, on the front porch,” Dean replied. “What d’you think they’re going to do?”

“Well, if that’s where they came from, we destroy them, they go away. Maybe. That’s what I’m hoping.”

Cas rubbed a hand down his face, and then marvelled at the solidity of it and his ability to do so.

“If they’re gone, how do we get our bodies back?” he asked quietly.

Sam caught his eye in the mirror, pain and worry evident in the lines of his brows and the set of his jaw. He didn’t know. None of them knew.

“Well, we got clear, maybe we can take a minute to think this through,” Dean suggested. He turned to look at Cas. “You said one step at a time, so we have Sam, we got away, what’s next?”

“Next would be acquiring information, I suppose. Which we already did,” Cas trailed off. “They told us how this came to be… perhaps the answer does lie within their words.”

“Maybe, or maybe just more riddles, more nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense if it’s true,” Sam cut in, making a left turn.

It was only a fifteen minute drive to Dean’s place at the speed Sam was going and they spent most of it in silence. Twice swift moving figures made them jump, appearing out of the darkness as they flew past but indistinguishable in the gloom until the headlights hit and Cas could see they were human, and not interested in whoever was driving around in the early hours of the morning.

Dean’s flat was the ground floor of an old converted house, meaning he had access to the street and the garden, front porch and everything. Everything was dark, the entire street had the silence and stillness of a residential area at night and they were the only things moving.

The entire world seemed to be holding its breath, barely a hint of wind, the stars twinkling softer as dawn neared and the sky wasn’t really light yet but the inky blackness was bleeding away.

The parking lot was round the back, with access to the house through an alley. Sam was out the drivers side door, careening through the back gate, and across the yard before the car had barely stopped moving.

Cas rushed to catch up, clinging to Dean’s arm so they were both more focused, more real.

“Someone’s got his running shoes on,” Dean griped.

“Well it’s not as though we have time to waste. We don’t know what their abilities are.”

“Not like we have a plan either. I don’t like the thought of getting stuck like this.”

Cas hummed. He didn’t either, but he liked the idea of something else living his life even less. They hurried as best they could through the back door, glancing behind every few feet looking for pursuers.

Sam came sliding back into the kitchen from the hallway, he’d barely worked up a sweat but his chest was heaving as he dumped three pumpkins on the countertop. They stood in the gloom of Dean’s house, unmoving, quiet. Fixated on the three round innocuous items before them.

“One for each of us,” he murmured. “I can’t believe this is true.”

“I still feel like this can’t really be my fault,” Dean said.

“We’re not blaming you,” Cas answered gently, laying his hand on the back of Dean’s neck and rubbing in circles.

“He jerked off in a pumpkin patch, I’m blaming him a little,” Sam said with a smirk. “Though less for the evil creatures and more for being indecent and a public menace.”

Dean bristled, straightening his back. The way they rubbed each other up never ceased to amaze and confuse Cas, but it was their way, to banter and cajole and poke fun at each other, a way of being close.

“If I was less _indecent_ we wouldn’t have half as much fun and you know it.”

Sam threw him a quick smile.

Cas had to take a moment (not a breath, he wasn’t breathing, it was still so very weird) to stop his train of thought and engage in the conversation again.

“So we have these, what do you think we can do with them?”

“Well… I’m just thinking, they were brought into existence when Dean, when you—”

“When my jizz hit the fan, so to speak, yes I’m aware do go on,” Dean said with a wry smile.

“So… so they must be connected to them in some way? Even if they’ve… feasted on you guys now, this is their source. Three pumpkins, three creatures, it makes some sense right?”

Cas looked at Dean, Dean looked at the items placed on the bench. It wasn’t that Sam’s line of thinking was wrong it was that they didn’t really know.

“How? How can this even be possible? Pumpkins… weird mythical beings, how can they be connected?” Dean threw his hands up and sputtered out of sight for a moment. “-uck!” he exclaimed as he reappeared. “I hate this, I want my body back, I want to be solid again, this—” he gestured to himself and Cas “can not be how we end up!”

“I don’t know _how_ but I think I know _what_. It has to be this, what else is there?”

Cas caught sight of a blurred shadow in the hallway behind Sam, something moving, out of sight as quick as it appeared.

“I don’t know that we’re going to have much chance to find out,” he murmured.

“What, why?” Dean moved around him, bristling with high energy and senses on alert.

“I think they found us.”

Sam whirled around, peering into the dark hallway.

“Lights,” Dean said, low, “let’s have some frickin’ light.”

Sam stepped tentatively closer to the door and flicked the lights on. Two figures were illuminated, stalking along the hallway.

A Dean, and a Cas.

“Shut the door!” Cas shouted.

Sam did, slamming it closed and backing up against it. “How will doors help?”

“The… those two, they have our physicality now, so… obstacles, doors, they can’t go through them.”

“You’re sure?” Dean asked.

“Not remotely,” Cas replied.

“But that still leaves…”

A smokey indistinct outline of a man forced its way through the back door of Dean’s kitchen.

“Yep, third ones the charm.” Dean slid into place between the creature and the others, Cas finding himself between Sam and Dean. He didn’t know what to do now, they were cornered, they’d gone from one house to another and not ended up in a better situation.

“We shouldn’t have stayed inside, we should have left,” he muttered.

“No time to play our greatest regrets now, what do we _do_?” Sam asked. He was holding the door closed as best he could but it rattled and shook as the creatures threw their weight against it.

“Destroy those things!” Dean gestured behind him, waving at the pumpkins.

“How?” Cas asked, he was the only one not doing anything helpful.

Dean and the figure prowled back and forth in front of each other, darting side to side as it tried to get past and Dean blocked its way.

“However you like!”

But Dean’s focus was lost and the figure burst past him with a spurt of speed, Cas flinched and it barrelled straight through him, directly to Sam.

Sam yelled and squashed up against the wall, squeezing his lean body until it was as flat to the side as he could make it. The creature didn’t slow down and hissed in annoyance as it flew through the door.

The door wasn’t being held closed anymore. The banging stopped and the handle began to move.

Sam didn’t waste time, he jumped sideways, careened around the kitchen island and gathered all three pumpkins into his arms. He slowed down, but only barely, to slide a carving knife out of the block, gripping it in his hand below his cradled prize.

“Out the back!”

Dean was already moving, Cas held up the rear, puffing his chest out to seem bigger and wider as the kitchen door opened and he faced down an angry double of himself.

“You will not have him,” he said, determination drawing him heavier, weightier, as solid as he had been since the first attack.

_“You will not save him. You cannot save yourselves. We need, and what we need we must have.”_

“Why, why do you need us?”

_“We want to be real, to exist, there is no other way.”_

“Well that’s a fucked up way to get a life, has no-one told you stealing is wrong?”

_“It wouldn’t be stealing, if you would give it freely.”_

“Why would we do that?”

_“It is inevitable, it must happen, why fight?”_

“Buddy, do you have something to learn about being human,” Dean spoke up, beside Cas again, behind him. Cas had moved steadily backwards, to the door towards the yard, still blocking the way but closer. The door was a bottleneck, a place to hold them back.

He turned briefly and saw Sam trying desperately to light a fire in one of Dean’s trash cans. It was November, and miserable, every leaf and twig Sam found on the ground was wet with damp and decay.

“What is he doing?” he hissed.

“Destroying them, what do you think?” Dean whispered back. “Keep them distracted.”

Cas looked at him wide eyed but he was inching away, sweeping the the yard like a guard dog.

“What happens to us, when you take over?” he asked the crowding creatures bearing down on him. They seemed wary now that he’d successfully fought them off once, but he was sure it wouldn’t stop them for long.

_“You fade, we succeed.”_

“If you want to blend in you’re going to have to remember to talk with one voice!” Sam shouted.

_“We are one, we are legion, you have felt this yourself since we turned you. Where one meets another strength grows. It will not last, you cannot last in our form.”_

“What do you mean we fade, what does that mean?” Cas demanded.

_“You give your life to sustain ours, once all three have been touched the process can begin.”_

Touched? No, it didn’t happen when they touched, it happened when they _bit._

Could it be? Could it work?

“Sam, stop!”

“What? Why?”

Cas turned sideways, still standing between their attackers and Sam, but holding out his hand in warning. “We need to eat them!”

“Huh?” Dean was flickering, the change in his focus turning him transparent and weak.

“They ate us, they became us, let’s try reversing it.”

_“No!”_

And that was all the proof they needed. Sam sprang into action, grabbing the carving knife he’d tried hacking the pumpkins apart with and pulling out a chunk of each pumpkin. Cas willed his body towards the trash can, ignoring the swell of movement behind him.

The creatures surged forwards, rushing out the doorway and Dean met them head on with a deck chair in hand, ramming them backwards.

Cas sidestepped and Sam was there holding a squishy block of orange pumpkin guts to his face, he bit down and grimaced. Sam was gone and he put all his thought into making his jaw move, making it mush the cold slimy substance into something he could swallow.

It got easier with every grind of his teeth, and then it hurt, and he heard yelling — screaming — but it wasn’t from his own lips. The pain ripped through him full body for an instant before he was stumbling backwards and gasping. He collided with the fence and stood there, stunned.

Walking, banging into things, breathing.

It worked.

There was an unholy screeching sound and Dean came flickering back into sight hurrying away from the house, Cas’s double hot on his heels. Cas didn’t even think, he just jumped in the way, knocking the creature aside.

“Eat!” he yelled at Dean. He looked into the house and saw a pitiful sight of a creature jerking and struggling as it became less and less solid.

“It’s raw,” Dean said indignant.

“It’s not supposed to be gourmet cuisine, just hurry up.”

Cas grappled with the creature he’d knocked off course, trying to stop it from getting back to its feet, trying to keep it off balance. It blazed hot, searing, and he recoiled as it cried out. It twisted in on itself, limbs flailing and fading, disappearing one blink at a time.

He turned to find Dean doubled over in pain but real, solid. Himself again.

But Sam, where was Sam?

Cas swivelled, scanning the dark corners of the garden that weren’t lit up from the house lights and saw a dark shape emerge from the corner fence.

It was Sam, with the whisping arms of the third creature wrapped around his neck and guiding him forward. Sam’s arms were out in surrender, palms up as he took halting steps forward under its hissing commands.

_“Let my brothers eat.”_

Dean looked at Cas, shaking his head, a glint of a lighter slipping between his fingers.

Two ominous shapes took form at the edges of his vision and Cas instinctively stepped closer to Dean.

“We can’t let you, there must be some other way to end this.”

_“There is only one way.”_

Sam’s head snapped up then, alive and alert. He grabbed for the appendage around his throat and sunk his teeth into the flickering shape of creature locked around him.

It screeched, trying to let go, but Sam’s teeth held it in place. Dean moved while the other two creatures wailed and tumbled toward their friend.

“Sam!” Cas yelled, picked up a tree branch and swung side to side, aiming at the creatures making a b-line for their brethren. Light burst behind him and the trash can filled with flames. All three creatures lit up like a flare gun burst, wailing and cracking, bright and blinding.

It was so intense Cas had to shield his eyes, turn away and cover his face. Only when the light died down could he turn and back. He surged forward blindly, Sam had been in the middle of the three of them, he might be hurt.

Lights flashed in his eyes, he blinked and groped forward, inching towards where Sam should be if only he wasn’t hurt. His foot kicked into something solid and he bent down to find Sam crouched on the ground, arms thrown over his head and panting hard.

“Is it over?” Dean asked. “Did we get them? Where’s Sam? I can’t see a fucking thing.”

Cas fumbled to find Sam’s face, framing it in his hands and looking for marks or burns but Sam smiled shakily.

“Sam’s okay!”

He gathered Sam up in a hug, who rocked back on his heels and fell laughing onto his ass.

“They burned up,” Sam said, when he caught his breath, “they just burned up.”

Cas clung to him and when Dean stumbled by he pulled him down too, not willing to stop touching until he’d convinced himself all three of them were okay.

They knelt in the mud, Dean whooping and Sam asking every question under the sun while Cas just took in the sight and feel of them. Whole. Solid. _His_.

Their revelry was interrupted by an window being thrown open and a gruff voice yelling _keep it down_!

“You keep it down, we’ve got celebrating to do!” Dean yelled back.

“Come on,” Cas stood, pulling Sam to his feet too. “Let’s go indoors.”

 

* * *

 

It had been two months since the incident. The holidays had passed in a blur as they tried to get back to some semblance of normality. Cas had wanted to shut themselves away and be alone — together — afraid of what was out their front doors.

Dean had insisted otherwise, promising that people and interaction was what they needed to convince their minds there was nothing to fear. It was only when he dragged them to the third Christmas light reveal, in a third town an hours drive away, that Cas began to wonder if Dean just didn’t want to be alone.

It had taken some time to draw it out of him, but he admitted eventually that he was nervous at home, so far away from them.

He hadn’t wanted to move in with them full time though, and it was only after the holidays calmed down that they found time to look for a place nearer to their house.

Moving in day had been hectic, and they’d left Dean alone to return the rental van. They arrived back to an aromatic smell filling the house.

“Dude, did you cook?” Sam asked shrugging out of his coat.

“No I didn’t cook, I ordered take out, you guys have the best places round here.”

“You really should have a home cooked meal made in your own kitchen, it beats anything you can get from a take out menu.”

“If you think that you’ve been ordering take out all wrong. But I got you a salad to go with the meal don’t worry, I know how you like to watch your weight.” Dean leaned in to pat at Sam’s flat washboard stomach.

Sam flicked his hand away in irritation. “Well when you collapse from a heart blockage don’t come crying to me.”

Cas smiled and picked out plates.

“There will be no dying, or taking ill, or otherwise distressing events in this house,” he said.

“From your lips to god's ears,” Dean replied.

They settled in for the night, balancing containers of food on boxes on the living room floor. They were all still a mite more jumpy than any of them cared to admit, but together, with food and the promise of a good night's sleep after a day of hard graft it was easier to relax.

“Did I tell you what else I found on this forum?” Sam said around a mouthful of food.

“Chew first, then speak,” Dean replied around his hamburger.

“Was it more people with tales of the unknown?” Cas asked, spooning rice and curry sauce into his plate.

“Yeah,” Sam swallowed, “someone linked to an independent bookstore that sells all these old tomes with like engravings and descriptions in, they look fascinating. Imagine how much we could find out if we had something like that.”

“How many did you buy?” Cas asked, turning sublimely to look at his husband.

“None...yet.” Sam shrugged and grinned.

“Let me know when you do so I don’t spend as much on groceries that week.”

Sam nodded with a laugh. His way of coping was to arm himself with knowledge, Dean’s had been to take up Krav Maga — though Cas suspected that was a lifelong goal he just now had reason to pursue. As for himself, he just needed them near, alive and breathing and well.

Anything else was bonus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cas is a big old softie who just wants his boys safe and sound <3
> 
> This was a real challenge for me to write, different feel, different themes, different setting and I had fun but I am glad it's over too :'). Somehow it also ended up three times the length of the previous chapter what the hell?
> 
> Comments and kudos always appreciated if you made it this far!
> 
> If anyone's curious I used references of shape shifter law from different regions around the world as inspiration, but especially drew on the Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul and where it comes from. [ Read about it here on Wikipedia under the "double" section](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_concept_of_the_soul)


End file.
